changeling chronicles 03 - faerie realm (28 page)

Dammit. This was a wraith—a spirit that could imitate human form. Which meant actually killing him with my sword wasn’t possible.
Magic it is, then.

His own sword continued to strike. I used my sword hand to block, the left focused on pulling as much magic as possible towards me. My shield grew into a shimmering haze, pushing his sword back.

A familiar screaming rose in my ears as all the pain and anger locked in the castle flooded me, fed into the light streaming from my hand.

My blade knocked his aside. I tackled him, and passed right through him, dropping Irene as I did so. Instead, my hand locked around his wrist.

Even as his hand went transparent, his sword’s weight pushed against my hand. I pulled, and he pulled back, ghostly mouth twisting into a hideous scream. Bright blue pits shone where his eyes used to be. Death energy, concentrated in one form.

I pulled his anger, his rage, into me, to join the others.

The wraith collapsed. Blue light engulfed me, sweeping through my body and up the solid, shining weight in my hand. Both my hands moved to grasp the hilt. The sword trembled, magic travelling up and down its length.

All was still. I lowered the blade. The light remained, blue and faint, around both me and the sword. Avakis’s. Now mine. Just like his magic. The sword hummed, vibrating in my hands with a sense of
rightness.
His magic and the sword were one, and now they were mine.

Frank’s spirit whispered in my ear, an echo:
“I can only assume the presence of faerie magic altered your physical body. That’s why you were able to open a way back between the realms.”

The magic had altered me. I was part of this realm, and part of Death, too. And my own realm. I could traverse them all.

I fell backwards, through death, into life.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

I aimed for the hillside. The suspended-in-mid-air feeling persisted as my body re-materialised—and then I realised I’d landed smack in the middle of a ferocious wind current. It caught me and sent my body hurtling back. A scream escaped, lost on the wind. I landed on my front, the weight of the new sword digging painfully into my leg. Ow.

The sword. My new weapon had made it. But where did the wind come from?

I picked up the blade. Here, it didn’t shine quite as brightly, but the silvery sheen wasn’t metal, and the blue edge was only visible to me. If anyone looked up close, they’d see it was no ordinary weapon.

Mine.

Roaring sounded behind me. Oh, crap. I turned around.

A wolf flew past and tackled another, blood spraying onto the grass. Huge cats and unrecognisable beasts ripped at one another with a horrific sound, grating against the hum of magic in the air.

They’d all reverted into their animal forms, which meant the Lady was back, and pissed. She’d unleashed her magic on them all. The entire area beside the rift in the ground was covered in snarling, fighting shifters. I couldn’t see anyone I knew.
Damn.
Vance better have got out of the pit.

I raised a hand and sent a jet of magic at the nearest brawling shifters. Huge bodies were flung aside, the air current tearing the grass from under their feet. Whoa. So this was how a Sidhe felt at the height of their power. My sword hummed, feeding a current of energy to my hands.

Mine,
sang the magic, rolling through my veins. The pain and shock of the fighters poured into me, fed into my power, and I unleashed a second blast that knocked shifters and humans aside.

Hold on.
The dizzying sensation faded a little. None of the fighters was Vance. Nor the dickheads who’d captured me. They’d been fighting when I’d left. I turned around. The air was thick with magic, and the Ley Line had gone translucent, blocking my view of the other side of the pit. I ran towards it, but couldn’t see any movement. I hoped that giant dragon hadn’t woken up.

Flashes of light ignited to my left, illuminating the way into thick fog. Inhuman snarls came from within. The fog meant the veil was thinning, which meant…

A wolf-like shape leapt over my head. Three shifters fell on one another, jaws snapping, claws tearing. I blasted them apart with magic and moved into the fog. Magic formed a shield around me, clearing a path. The shifters, however, continued to fight. Bodies lay slumped amongst them. Not all of them were dead. Miniature explosions—knockout spells—flew around, but few made contact with their targets. The mages must be trying to subdue the shifters without killing them—at the risk of their own lives.

I cursed, holding my sword to carve a path through the fighting.

Magic burst from both sides of my blade, knocking down shifters and mages alike. That’d stop at least some of them killing one another, at least. Someone shouted my name, but I’d already locked onto my target.

Three mages lay dead at the feet of an enormous wolf. A second held Wanda between its teeth.

“NO!”

My scream drew all attention on me. Teeth snapped at my arm, but I hit the shifter with a current of magic without breaking stride. I focused all my attention on my sword, pouring all my anger into it, and leaped at the shifter holding Wanda.

The sword cut through its neck so smoothly, my grip didn’t falter. The wolf’s head flew, landing several feet away. Wanda’s body dropped to the ground.

A roar sounded from the other shifter. Blood stained its huge mouth, and its yellow eyes fixated on me.

I blasted its legs out from underneath it, leaped, and drove my blade through its eye. Magic burst outward from my sword, tearing its head from its shoulders and splattering me with blood.
Whoa. Shit.
Even with the relentless hum of magic, a thought shook through me—
that’s what the Lady did. It’s how she killed them.

I jumped down beside Wanda. “Someone get her out of here!” I yelled. “Where in hell is Vance?”

“He went after her,” a voice shouted. Drake. “She took Anabel.”

I swore explosively. “Where?”

Mages pointed through the fog at the shimmering haze above the Ley Line.

Oh, fuck. Not Faerie again.

Part of me reeled in shock, but the flow of adrenaline was relentless, as was the magic pouring through the sword, through me.

I ran. My feet hardly touched the ground, and nothing in the fog could stop me. Spirits appeared. I blasted them aside.
Please. Please not them.

My feet left the ground. For a second, I thought I’d gone into Death after all or even taken flight, except I could feel my body, and the sword’s heavy weight in my hands. A platform appeared underneath my feet, turning into stairs.

Faeries could warp reality. We were so close to the veil, it wouldn’t surprise me if she’d brought part of Faerie
here.
The stairs felt solid enough. I climbed.

If the Lady was at the top, I’d knock her off her damned pedestal.

The stairs ended quicker than I expected, leading into a fuzzily-defined bridge between clouds.
Okay…

A cloud drifted past. The bridge reformed itself, and my jaw dropped. My grip on the blade slackened.

Several people stood on a platform, suspended over empty air. I’d have said we were in Death, but the people weren’t transparent. And neither was Vance.

He’d shifted almost entirely, his eyes flat and inhuman even from this distance. Bars kept him enclosed in a cage barely big enough to contain him. Outside the cage stood several small figures. Children.
God.

Anabel. George. Shifter kids. She’d brought them here. To use them as bait or to torment me, I didn’t know. Or maybe she’d decided she needed an extra power boost.

I walked along the bridge towards them. My blade hummed, its glow bright enough the Lady would have been able to see me half a mile away.

“Nice,” I said loudly. “Seems a pity to expend so much effort on this place and then hide in an illusion.”

Unsurprisingly, a layer of glamour peeled away, less than ten feet from me. I’d predicted as much. When you’d faced one dramatic egotistical faerie, you’d faced them all. Though I’d never been in this particular dilemma before. How to get those kids out of here? And Vance…
don’t look at him. He’ll be okay. The energy levels are affecting him, but you’ll kill her, and it’ll be all right.

I raised my blade in greeting, my hands itching to blast her with magic. But here on the Ley Line, in this weird illusion, I couldn’t be sure my magic wouldn’t trigger her spell to open the veil.

“Ivy.” She twirled in a flurry of green leaves, raising her own blade. “You got away from me before. That was a mistake. Your second error was letting me at your mage.”

My heart sank through the bridge under my feet.
I’ll kill your mage first,
whispered Calder’s voice in my ear.

“Your biggest error was being an arrogant, conniving old hag,” I said.

Her teeth peeled back from her lips, no longer beautiful but feral. In a swift movement, she leaped at me.

My feet left the bridge as I jumped. This time, the clash of sword on sword didn’t hurt. Magical energy surged through me, giving me strength far beyond what I’d had before. I was up against raw, ancient power, but I wielded equal strength as my own.

“You found a talisman,” she said, her beautiful singsong voice grating against me.

“I earned it.” I swiped her sword aside, and dealt a glancing blow to her left arm. Blue-tinged faerie blood spurted, but green light immediately encased her arm. Instant healing. Crap. We must be at least halfway to Faerie. “Unlike you.”

I got close enough to kick at her, but a shield blocked the way. Fine. Magic it was. With the strength flooding my body, letting go of the sword with one hand didn’t slow me down. I hurled a blast of energy at her, forcing her to jump high and dodge. Our deadly dance took us across the platform, trading blows that ought by rights to have knocked at least one of us off and into empty air, if not for our supernaturally enhanced instincts.

“I earned my magic,” she snarled. “You didn’t. You should never have been allowed to wield it.”

“I don’t make the rules.”

A cut opened on my arm, and sealed itself before the blood could fall. She sliced at my leg, leaving a trail of pain, but I kept going. I needed to deal a killing blow before those kids fell off the platform—or shifted.

“Impressive, Ivy Lane,” she said, locking my sword in place. “You’ve learned some tricks.”

“Got the hang of your sword yet?” I asked. “Last time it nearly killed you. I’m not convinced you’re strong enough to handle it.”

Her eyes glowed green. “I’m strong enough. Summer’s power is mine. All life is mine to command.”

“Really scary,” I commented, swiping at her, trying to knock through her defences. I feinted to the left, then stabbed to the right, sending a pulse of power through my blade.

My strike missed. The magic didn’t. Blue energy struck her full in the chest, sending her flying across the bridge, and onto the platform. She landed beside George, grabbing him by the scruff of his neck. His scream broke through the magic humming around me. My magic was pleased I’d hit her. It wanted to release itself through my hands, striking her dead for good.

No. I have to get George away from her first.

I ran and jumped, sailing through the air at a speed I’d never leaped before. My feet slammed down onto the platform’s edge. The other children huddled together. Vance watched with unseeing eyes.

“Wake up!” I snapped at him. I’d hit him with magic to knock some sense into him, but the way my magic was raging, I couldn’t be sure it wouldn’t kill him.

Stop that.
My human instincts to save George fought with the furious torrent of magic. My blade moved of its own accord, smashing into the Lady’s sword. Her other hand loosened its grip on George.

“Pretty mortal child.” She grinned. “Would you give up his life to save the others?”

A tugging sensation halted my steps. The vow.

“Stop that,” I snarled. “I think we both know the promise was total bullshit, like everything else you’ve ever said. You have your talisman.”

“I never specified
which
talisman.”

My sword ignited in blue fire. “So you wanted mine. You only asked me to find it, not to give it to you.”

“I dictated the terms of the vow, human.”

“Not quite.” Blue energy surged along my blade, fighting to break free.

Stronger than the pull of the vow I’d made.

“You’re human.” She bared her teeth, dangling George over the edge.

“Not since I slit Avakis’s throat with his own sword. I’m no ordinary human. You didn’t know that when you made the vow. You can’t go back on your word.”

Her eyes bulged. “So that’s it.” A crooked smile twisted her mouth. “That’s why Faerie found you worthy.”

“What’s so funny?” Energy gathered, relentless, dying to strike her dead. “You have three seconds to answer.”

She let go of George.

I lunged forward, my blade cutting through her shield, through her body. The Lady screamed, more of an animal noise than a human one, and I leaned over her. I grabbed George before he fell, setting him on the platform with my free hand. The Lady lay suspended in the air, wielding the talisman sword. Blood streamed from where my own sword impaled her, holding her upright. Wisps of magic floated around her, drifting away amongst the clouds.

“You lose,” I said.

She gave a coughing laugh. “Do you want to know which favour I offered to Calder, Ivy Lane?” she asked.

“Not really.” A lie. The buzzing in my veins threatened to give way to exhaustion, but I needed to get out of here first. Get the kids to safety, and help Vance. Away from the Ley Line, he’d revert back into human form. He had to.